I'm beginning to write this review 30 days before we leave. My wife and I are really anticipating this, our 14th cruise together, and first on Celebrity. We've cruised once with RCCL, twice with NCL, three times with Carnival and the rest with Princess. This is actually a rescheduling of a cruise we planned to take in January, 2012 for our 40th anniversary -- it had to be canceled because of family obligations. Thank you travel insurance.

I am a cabin research nut and last year I set my sights on getting one of the hump cabin with the largest balcony. I booked (six plus months ahead) cabin 9237, a 1A, on the port side and near the main elevators. It's the first balcony on the aft side of the hump, as the cabins start to return to the ship, and it's reported to be the largest of the hump balconies.

This year I didn't start booking until a little over three months ahead, and the best I could find was a C2, cabin 2111. It's on the hump, but on deck 12 and it's has the big overhang from the deck above. Also, it's the last hump cabin before the cabins straighten out again -- so the balcony is not quite the biggest and I wasn't 100% happy. So, I kept checking every day or two on Travelocity to see if any better cabins would become available. About a week later cabin 9241 became available. Also a C2, so I made the switch. Same cabin category, and since I booked through Celebrity, it just took a phone call. I still kept checking every few days and about 10 days later cabin 1243 became available and I quickly made the call to book it. We ended up in the exact same position on the ship as last year's cabin 9237, but one deck up in cabin 1243. Hot damn. Read more